Dictation machines are used for a variety of purposes and are especially helpful in situations in which the user must be able to record speech or comments quickly and at any given time. For this reason, mobile dictation machines for use in the car, at home, etc. have become very popular. In addition to the need to simply be able to voice record a comment, there is also the need to be able to review and comment upon documents in mobile situations. The ability to use so-called non-productive time, such as time spent commuting to and from work, to review various documentation, user manuals, and various other documents that must be reviewed and commented upon is an unmet need. Unfortunately, the technology does not currently exist to support this need.
While a user may convert text to audio to listen to a document or may record comments/feedback by use of a voice-enabled digital recorder, such technology has its limitations. If using separate devices to accomplish both tasks, the user must stop one device to start the other, or stop one program and start another if both functions are provided by a single device. If voice recognition technology is used to transcribe recorded comments back to text, the user must manually insert the individual comments in order to provide the feedback in context.